Faheem Ashraf

Pakistan has an arsenal of fast bowling all-rounders and it wouldn’t be wrong to call Faheem Ashraf as one of them. There are many upcoming talented all-rounders in the team and with so many resources to choose from, it has become a big headache for Pakistani selectors. Players come in the team, they get chances, they struggle and soon after are dropped. This has been the case with countless cricketers from Pakistan; hence they're known to be one of the most unpredictable sides in world cricket. Looking at the way his career has panned out so far, hopefully Ashraf doesn't fall into that category of players.

Ashraf who started his career as a pacer caught the attention of the world right after his blazing cameo off 64(30) in the warm-up encounter of Champions Trophy 2017 against Bangladesh. In the 90s, pinch-hitters were quite popular and Ashraf has all the traits required to be called one. During Pakistan's recent tour of New Zealand, Ashraf was also promoted to open the batting in one of the ODIs, unfortunately he failed.

In October 2017 against Sri Lanka, Faheem Ashraf dismissed Isuru Udana, Mahela Udawatte and Dasun Shanaka on successive deliveries and became the first ever Pakistani bowler to claim a hat-trick in T20Is. Shows how fatal he can be if he gets going. With the presence of other all-rounders in the team, if Faheem Ashraf wants to become a regular face in the playing XI, he will have to work a lot harder and come up with such laudable performances more often than not. And if at all the young all-rounder performs well on a consistent basis in near future, he can definitely prove to be an integral part of the squad for the upcoming World Cup in 2019.

Written by Nikhil Jadhav